I used to work for a Juvenile Hall here in California and you
wouldn't believe what things we came across. The worst part is that
the employees were somehow involved in the contraband ring. The most
we found were sacks of weed. Being that certain searches are not
allowed anymore or pepper spray there is a lot that we missed coming
in and leaving the premises.

Reply:

This was in response to Message 8149 in which a UWP student was recounting the contraband discovered in a creative measure the student was doing for corrections. I'm delighted that you are all benefitting in this way from our cross-country sharing.
jeanne
December 22, 2005

Message 8168:

Robert and Kaneetria you both hit it right on the head. No correct
interpretations! I feel the same way as you both do about us having
free will. We all as human beings feel and think differently. If we
didn't this world would be a black and white boring TV. show from the
50's. Sharing different interpretations is exciting and brings on a
good debate. It also teaches us different things that we might have
not noticed before.

Reply:

Elva, this is a good statement in your own words of the importaance of recognizing the subjective component of interpretation. All interpretations have this problem.
jeanne
December 22, 2005

Message 6500:

In the case study of the cement in the spinal cord, doctors
need to set up a regression. "A regression is a form of statistical
technique." This will allow the doctors to see and compare "general
patterns" of the pain before and after the cement is injected in the
spinal cord.
The scale can range from 0 to 10, using only even numbers.
Zero would stand for completely pain free; where as numbers two through
ten would vary depending on the description given by the patient.
After all surveys are in the doctors can separate the patients by
gender and age. Then the patients can be separated by the number they
rate their pain.
When all the numbers are in, the doctors could have a better
look at the pain affecting each patient. It can also given them a look
at the possibility that the pain could regress. If it regresses who
regresses faster man or woman, what age rage and how bad are questions
that might be answered.

Reply:

Elva, You're right on defining the way in which pain is traditionally measured, but I'd like you to recognize and state the actual problems with that type of measurement, i.e., that it's subjective, subject to statements of lesser pain just because over time there is regression toward the mean, and the problem with using such measurement alone to decide on a treatment's efficacy. Your use of the term regresses is inaccurate. Go back to the article for a definition.
jeanne
December 20, 2005

Message 6501:

The graph posted in the article, Living Alone, does not show the
whole picture. It showed that 26.8% of the United States
population lives alone. What exactly is their definition of alone?
Giving us their meaning of alone would help us, the reading public,
comprehend how many Americans actually live alone, with no one to
count on and no living relatives a few miles away to run home to when one is
truly lonely.

When one takes a closer look at the article, one notices that
those 26.8% "are either elderly or sick." Yet, the article states that
it is extremely hard to actually calculate how many disabled, mentally
ill or severely sick Americans are really out there living alone. The
graph needed to be further developed and more accurate.

Reply:

Good points made on definition of variable and the difficulty of measurement with a socially constructed variable.
jeanne
December 20, 2005